Today was a rather long 15 miles from North Nibley to Old Sodbury. It was nothing short of easy due partly to the continuation of the English hillsides which I wrote about earlier in the week. This region is not\u00a0known\u00a0for flatness and if someone were to associate flatness with the Cotswolds, that would be a flat-out (if you will) mistake. Today’s walk was also particularly challenging because the only decent sized town came about 2 miles into the walk. \u00a0It’s hard to find yourself hungry after gorging on toast and fruit at the Bed & Breakfast just an hour or so before, but knowing that the chance to eat again won’t come for nearly 13 more miles is enough to make you stop by a bakery and grab some lunch to go.<\/p>\n
Along the way to Wotton-under-Edge, the lunch-stop town, we climbed up Tyndale Monument\u2014a tower erected to the memory of William Tyndale, a man who worked at translating the New Testament into English and unfortunately\u00a0was executed for it. This was a neat 120 steps up that gave some incredible\u00a0views of North Nibley and the surrounding area. After climbing down the tower, it was just a short walk on over to Wotton-under-Edge, another medium sized town like that of Winchcombe, Painswick and Durlsey. There were a lot of neat shops, however. An antique store where my mom couldn’t resist an antique wine box\u2014a box that would now need to be lugged 13 more miles to Old Sodbury\u2014a bakery where we grabbed a few things for\u00a0lunch, and countless other shops to poke your head in and out of. The plan was to take our lunch on a few more miles and have a picnic. So without\u00a0spending much more time in Wotton-under-Edge, we set off.<\/p>\n
Taking a break for lunch around 12:30, all was progressing nicely. Our pace was quick, cows in the fields were being cooperative and not blocking our trail too much and the weather was\u00a0nicer than even necessary for a solid day of walking. We didn’t dally too long eating lunch as we knew there were quite a few miles between us and the next B&B. Really, after lunch, we didn’t stop again until our 18:30 arrival at our B&B besides the occasional minute or so water break or 30 second “catch your breath” break. That was a long haul and by the time we did finally arrive at our resting point, our feet, legs and every other part of the body that’s being used by this walk could feel the strain.<\/p>\n
This B&B is quite a bit different than the rest. It has a pub on the first floor and half a dozen rooms on the second. When we first walked in, it felt nearly like the hotel that the Griswolds walked into in the beginning of their European vacation. I almost thought I was going to have to tell the bartender\/receptionist that I was the winner of the Pig In The Poke<\/a>. \ud83d\ude1b Dinner was obvisouly down stairs in the Pub this evening and it was fantastic as all the other meals on this trip have been.<\/p>\n Tomorrow looks a little dodgy as far as the weather goes. We may get a little wet during the first part of the day, but hopefully will have dried out by Cold Ashton\u2014only a short 8 miles from Old Sodbury! Here’s what we’re looking at tomorrow (Saturday) weather wise:<\/p>\n
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